By David Downey | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise PUBLISHED: June 6, 2018 at 5:18 pm | UPDATED: June 6, 2018 at 5:18 pm Southern Californians are being urged this summer to help fight a disease that threatens to wipe out the state’s iconic citrus by sharing fruit with friends, family and coworkers only after thoroughly washing it and removing the leaves. Agricultural officials also ask those who live within a citrus greening disease quarantine zone in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside or San Bernardino counties not to take fruit outside those areas. The warning from the state Citrus Pest & Disease Prevention Program comes as the summer travel season heats up and the number of fruit trees infected with Huanglongbing — or citrus greening disease — multiplies across Southern California. So far, the disease has afflicted residential neighborhoods only and three counties: Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside. But, as of June 2, the total number of diseased trees statewide had reached 602, up from 370 at the end of last year and 23 at the end of 2016, said Beth Grafton-Cardwell, a UC Riverside extension entomologist who conducts research in the Central Valley. Sign up for The Localist, our daily email newsletter with handpicked stories relevant to where you live. Subscribe here. Grafton-Cardwell said it is a matter of time before the disease reaches commercial groves. “It could be as soon as this year,” she said. “We don’t really know how devastating it is going to be, but it is going to be bad because we don’t have a cure for… [Read full story]
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